The Western Jane Got a Gun has gotten off to a bit of a rough start.  The film was to begin production this past Monday, but director Lynne Ramsay abruptly left the project by reportedly not showing up for the first day of filming, leaving the pic in a state of uncertainty.  Gavin O’Connor (Warrior) was quickly brought in to replace Ramsay, but then Jude Law dropped out of the project as a result of Ramsay’s departure, leaving the film without a villain.  Natalie Portman is poised to star as a woman whose outlaw husband returns home riddled with bullets, spurring her to team up with her ex-lover (Joel Edgerton) in order to seek revenge against the man responsible (the villain role yet to be cast).

With production apparently back underway, O’Connor and the film’s producers are scrambling to replace Law as quickly as possible.  A new report has surfaced suggesting that they’re casting a pretty wide net to fill the role, as Jake Gyllenhaal, Tobey Maguire, and Jeff Bridges are among those being considered.  Hit the jump for more. 

A rather unfortunate situation has arisen on the promising drama Jane Got a Gun.  The Western drama has a Black List script by Brian Duffield and an outstanding cast that includes Natalie Portman, Joel Edgerton, and Jude Law, and production was set to begin yesterday with We Need to Talk About Kevin director Lynne Ramsay at the helm.  However, it appears that Ramsay has decided to announce her dropping out of the project by simply not showing up to set on what was to be the first day of filming.  Hit the jump for more on this supremely disappointing news.

Steve walked the floor at the American Film Market (AFM) early this morning and managed to bring back some detailed synopses for the following films:

• Jane Got a Gun – A Western starring Natalie Portman and Michael Fassbender
• Parkland – A drama about the JFK assassination starring Billy Bob Thornton, Paul Giamatti, and Jacki Weaver.
• The Green Inferno – The next directorial project from Eli Roth.
• A Walk Among the Tombstones – A crime thriller starring Liam Neeson.
• Agent: Century 21 – An action comedy starring Cameron Diaz and Benicio Del Toro.

Hit the jump to check out all the detailed synopses, which include production start dates.

If you’ve ever wanted to see “Moby Dick” in space, well Ahab, today is your day!  Lynne Ramsay is set to direct Mobius, a sci-fi take on the Herman Melville classic.  Ramsay is currently writing the treatment along with her We Need to Talk About Kevin co-writer and spouse, Rory Kinnear.  Heat Vision reports that Mobius has been pitched as a “psychological action thriller set in deep space, [where] a captain consumed by revenge takes his crew on a death mission fueled by his own ego and will to control an enigmatic alien.”  The title of the picture may change, because writer/director Eric Rochant (Love Without Pity) currently has a picture titled Mobius in post.  That story follows an FSB officer who falls in love with an American woman who works at a Russian bank.  Then again, that movie title has an umlaut in it (or is it a diaeresis?), so it’s obviously completely different…

Michael Fassbender is a very busy man, and he looks to be showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon.  This summer he’s been filming a supporting role in Steve McQueen’s period pic Twelve Years a Slave and the lead in Ridley Scott’s star-studded drama The Counselor, he recently signed on to star in and co-produce a film iteration of Assassin’s Creed, and he’s developing a pic based on Celtic warrior Cuchulainn.  Now it appears the Shame actor is looking to add Western to his varied resume, as reports have Fassbender looking at starring opposite Natalie Portman in the incredibly promising Western Jane Got a Gun.  Hit the jump for more.

After taking some much-deserved time off following her Best Actress Oscar win for Black Swan and the birth of her child, Natalie Portman is beginning to line up a slate of upcoming projects.  She’s set to star in two new Terrence Malick films and she’ll return for Thor 2, and now she’s attached herself to star in and produce a wildly interesting project called Jane Got a Gun.  The film, described as a Western, was written by Brian Duffield and centers on “a woman whose outlaw husband returns home barely alive and riddled with bullet wounds. She is forced to reach out to an ex-lover and ask if he will help defend her farm when her husband’s gang eventually tracks him down to finish the job.”  Hit the jump for more.

We Need To Talk About Kevin has been gathering acclaim since its debut at last year’s Cannes Film Festival.  Lynne Ramsay‘s first film since her 2002 critical hit Morvern Callar, paints a claustrophobic nightmare for the mother of an evil son whose committed unspeakable acts.

The film begins a gradual, national rollout this weekend in New York as its star, Tilda Swinton is a Best Actress nominee (Motion Picture-Drama), across the country, at Sunday’s Golden Globes in Beverly Hills.  Ramsay’s also seen her share of glory for Kevin, including a Best Director win at the British Independent Film Awards (England’s equivalent of the Indie Spirits).  The writer/director made time for Collider during a hectic press tour.  Hit the jump for the transcription and audio of her interview about Kevin, including lots of exclusive details on why she probably won’t give Patti Smith‘s autobiography a big screen treatment, other biopics of rock icons she’s turned down and what she really thought of Peter Jackson‘s King Kong. Warning: Spoilers ahead.

The 14th Annual British Independent Film Awards were held tonight and the brutal drama Tyrannosaur took home trophies for Best Film, Best Debut Director (Paddy Considine), and Best Actress (Olivia Colman).  Other BIFA winners included Senna for Best Documentary, Lynne Ramsay for Best Director (We Need to Talk about Kevin), Michael Fassbender for Best Actor (Shame), and Richard Ayoade for Best Screenplay (Submarine).

I thought Tyrannosaur failed to derive honest drama from its ugliness and violence, but I can understand why the movie struck a chord with most viewers.  As for the other winners, I think Ramsay is still an outsider in the Oscar race, but Fassbender, Ayoade, and Colman may have boosted their chances, although Colman will probably compete in the Best Supporting Actress category since that’s where she has a better chance for a nomination.  Hit the jump for the full list of winners.

The US trailer for Lynne Ramsay’s searing drama We Need to Talk about Kevin has gone online.  The film, which picked up six BIFA nominations today, centers on Eve (Tilda Swinton), a mother who is forced to grapple with her son’s unforgivable and violent act.  Ramsay cuts between Eve’s life pre- and post-atrocity and how she wonders if her son was always capable of committing such a horrifying deed.  I’ll have my review up when the movie opens in December, but when I saw it at TIFF it left me with my jaw on the floor and a hole in my gut.  The trailer does a good job of conveying the tone of the film and selling the magnificence of Swinton’s performance.  I’ve seen other great work from actresses this year like Kirsten Dunst in Melancholia and Elizabeth Olsen in Martha Marcy May Marlene, but Swinton blows them away.  In my mind, she’s the frontrunner for the Best Actress Oscar.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film also stars John C. Reilly and Ezra Miller.  We Need to Talk about Kevin opens in New York and LA on December 9th and will begin a platform release in February 2012.

We haven’t gotten a domestic trailer for Lynne Ramsay’s We Need to Talk about Kevin but hopefully it will share the same creepiness as the one that’s hit the UK.  Bookended by Buddy Holly’s “Everyday”, the movie shows that Kevin (Ezra Miller) really, really, really doesn’t like his mother (Tilda Swinton) and the feeling may be mutual.  However, the plot centers around Kevin going on a shooting spree at his school.  When teenagers go on shoot up their schools in real life, it seems that the parents were unaware of the child’s dark side beyond saying their kid was “withdrawn” and/or “sullen” (sometimes they seemed perfectly happy).  In this movie, it looks like Kevin may as well walk around with a t-shirt that reads “I am going to do something horrible.”  I would be nervous about the flick but the strong buzz coming out of Cannes (especially for Swinton’s performance) has me interested.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  We Need to Talk about Kevin opens December 2nd.

Three clips from writer/director Lynne Ramsay’s We Need to Talk About Kevin are now available online. Starring Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly, and Ezra Miller, the film centers around a mother and father (Swinton & Reilly) whose son is responsible for a high-school massacre. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Lionel Shriver and the clips on display here have an eerie aura that stick with me as I type.

Hit the jump to check out the clips. We Need to Talk About Kevin is currently slated for a September 2 release in the UK. Stateside release details may very well be forthcoming following the film’s debut at the Cannes Film Festival which runs from May 11-22.

The first images from Lynne Ramsay’s indie drama We Need to Talk about Kevin have gone online.  The film stars Tilda Swinton as the mother of a teenager who goes on a high-school killing spree and her attempt to sort out her anger and grief by writing to her estranged husband (John C. Reilly).

Hit the jump to check out the images.  We Need to Talk about Kevin will play in competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, which runs from May 11 – 22nd.  Click here and here for our interviews with Swinton and Reilly where they talk about the movie.